Victorian Fashion Plates

Jonathan said:
The Fashion History Museum has just created its first Youtube film on Victorian Fashion Plates - please take a look (and if you like it, give it a click!)
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I'm new to the Forum and am seeking information about the 1866 German Fashion Plate I found stored away.
My fashion Plate is titled, "Beilage zur Victoria". Below the title is the date "15. April. 1866". In the lower right corner, deep in the margin are these numbers in very small font: 47489.

The image shows two women facing right; a woman standing to the left of center looking over the shoulder of a woman seated right of center who is looking into a hand-held mirror.

The standing woman is in a medium Blue billowing dress and Blue tunic, with a shorter white overlay covering most of the blue dress; the overlay has large dark buttons down her right side. Her hair is pulled up and back into a loose, full bun. She wears small pendant earrings. Her long sleeves are billowing and buttoned as is the overlay. Behind her there is a window with curtains tied open.

The seated woman is facing a small table; there are three pictures on the wall and a compote overflowing with green ivy. She is wearing a billowing white dress, trimmed with white lace attached with dark piping. The neckline is low-cut and just a bit off the shoulders; sleeves are short, to mid bicep, and puffed. She wears a simple chain around her neck holding three small medallions. She appears to be wearing pendant earrings. Her hair is fixed similarly to the woman behind her.

The floor appears to be carpeted with alternating rows of circles and diamonds, these rows separated by undecorated strips about two inches wide.

Who might I contact for information about the provenance, artist, and number of these extant? Thank you,

Doug
 
Jonathan said:
I don't know of anybody who has a library of German fashion plates. Probably somewhere in Germany... sorry.
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Thanks for the quick reply, Jonathan. Because the language is German, I'm making an assumption that the origin of the Plate is German. Might the Plate have been made in France, Switzerland, or even England, and titled in German for some exotic reason? -Doug
 
German fashion prints are usually the same as French prints because the fashions were coming out of Paris, and that is where they were sketched. Some publications you can find the same plate in various issues -Der Bazaar, Harper's Bazaar, and La Mode Illustree all used the same fashion plates to illustrate their monthly issues.
 
As it says "Beilage" it was a kind of supplement to what was probably a fashion / ladie's magazine. I am in Switzerland, but have never yet come across from such a magazine from the 19th century - I just have a few early 20th century ones. Victoria might have been a popular name for such a thing in Germany then - Princess Victoria, the daughter of Queen Victoria of Great Britain had married the Prussian crown prince in 1858. Off the top of my head one museum that I could think of is the Wien Museum in Vienna, as they also have a fashion collection. A look search in their online collection didn't bring up anything though. In Germany, I'm not sure which museum might hold things like this.
 
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